Synagogue Holds Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yom Hashoah – the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day will be observed at Congregation Ohab Zedek in Belle Harbor on Thursday evening, May 5 at 8 p.m. The program will commence with a special service in the Main Sanctuary of the Synagogue in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and will be conducted by Rabbi Emeritus, Dr. Jacob Reiner and Rev. Pinkas Klapholz. Six grandchildren of Holocaust survivors will light six candles in memory of the victims and the student choir of Belle Harbor Yeshiva will perform several songs appropriate for the occasion.

Johanna Liebman will be the guest speaker for the evening. As a teenager in Germany, she was deported to Vichy France, and after a three-year ordeal, managed to escape to Switzerland in 1943 with the help of the French Resistance. Her topic will be “My Odyssey from Karlsruhe to Le Chambon.”

Russ Radusky, a 17-year old Belle Harbor student, who recently returned from a school sponsored group tour to Poland, visiting Europe’s most infamous slaughter grounds, will report on his trip. The program is open to the public and will be chaired by Max Mermerlstein. For more information, contact the Ohab Zedek office at 718-474-3300. The congregation is located at 134-01 Rockaway Beach Boulevard.